Project Inverted turns a gaming PC inside-out with hand-made casing
While we've seen some exotic PC mods in our time, most of those still dutifully stuff all the computer parts into a box, hiding them from the outside world. Martijn Laman isn't one for that kind of traditionalism. His recently completed Project Inverted, just highlighted by ASUS, puts most of the hardware on the outside: the Sabertooth Z77 motherboard, Core i5 processor, fan cooling, memory,Radeon HD 6870 video card and watercooling pipes all sit in plain sight. Everything is joined by a unique, hand-cut case whose backbone and elevated base hide the custom wiring, the watercooling pump, two solid-state drives and controllers for both fans and lighting. And did we mention the 7-inch touchscreen? The result is a truly special gaming rig that's relatively quiet and pristine despite baring its heart and soul for all to see. Building a replica won't be quick, nor will it be cheap at about €1,500 ($1,909), but Laman's detailed assembly process could well be the inspiration for a few more extroverted PCs.
How would you change the Samsung Galaxy S III?
When we reviewed Samsung's Galaxy S III in the simple, gentle days of May, our reviewer wasn't sure it would win out against HTC's One X. In the intervening six months, however, the Korean behemoth has battled to the top of the smartphone world and shipped 30 million of its 2012-era flagship to consumers worldwide. But what about the phone itself? You've had half a year to burrow deep into this device and find out what you love and what you don't. It's How Would You Change time, folks, you know what to do.
MIT robot arm corrects colorful block-related mishaps (video)
We've been traveling around the country the past week, checking out some of the latest goings-on in the wide world of robotics. Amongst the most prevalent themes we've seen across the projects is a sense of real-world uncertainty -- which is to say that any number of things can go wrong when you take a robot outside of its laboratory comfort zone (one roboticist told us about a prototype that malfunctioned thanks to reflections off a nearby building). This is certainly the case in the world of manufacturing robotics, where it's hard to maintain any semblance of the sterile consistencies afforded by testing grounds. MIT grad student Steve Levine showed us a project designed to help manufacturing robots constructed of unreliable parts operate in unreliable environments.
The Barrett WAM robot arm is controlled via voice, tasked, in the case of the demo, with moving around a handful of brightly-colored blocks. Utilizing four off-the-shelf webcams, the system creates a 3D environment of the space, visible for our purposes on a nearby projector. As Levine puts it, the lab is "trying to make robots that can automatically sense their environment," meaning, in the case of the demo, that you can move a block around and the arm will correct the discrepancy, moving it off the top of the pile and readjusting things to where they should be. The project foresees a bit of a utopian world wherein robots and humans work side by side on factory floors, helping one another out and correcting potential mistakes.
Check out a video of Levine and his robot arm working in relative harmony after the break. More info on the project can be found in the source link below.
Switched On: The next microplatform
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
The case for rich operating systems supporting a wide range of applications has been proven out among PCs, tablets and smartphones. But the jury is still out for other devices such as televisions. While Samsung pushes ahead on attracting apps to its Smart TVs using its own platform and LG, Sony and Vizio align with Google TV, there are still reasons to believe that the smart TV will fail to have tremendous impact as Switched On discussed last year. Blu-ray players, video game consoles and cheap boxes fromApple, Roku, Netgear and others allow consumers to expand their video options while integrated networking provides gateways to content from smartphones, tablets and PCs.
MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab envisions a future of personal air transport (video)
More fun out of MIT's AI lab. Grad student Peng Yu happily showed off a couple of flying demos on our visit, controlling an Ar.Drone with a number of methods, including keyboard, tablet (touch), voice and gesture, each naturally presenting their own positives and negatives, in terms of ease of use and specificity. The latter was certainly the most intriguing of the bunch, executed via a Kinect hack that allowed Yu to direct the flying robot over a small model town in the middle of the lab.
Voice, meanwhile, played an important role in a computer demo that keeps in line with a vision from Boeing of a future (some 20 or 30 years out, according to its estimates) in which citizens utilize personal aircrafts capable of carrying two to four people to, say, commute to work. Speaking into the system, the user essentially negotiates with the aircraft, giving a destination, hoped for flight duration and any pitstops to be made along the way. The system in the demo adjusted for storms and let Yu know how quickly it thought it would be able to make the run.
Demos of all of the above can be found after the break.
IRL: Logitech UE 900 headphones, Nokia Lumia 900 and the Galaxy Note II
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.
This week Darren is back, test-driving a $400 pair of Ultimate Ears headphones, while Steve tells us about his new Galaxy Note II. Rounding things out, Jon takes a trip to the bargain basement and picks up a discounted Lumia 900. Read on to find out how much the gang likes their new loot.
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